Johan Thorn Prikker's Legacy Celebrated in Krefeld and Hagen Exhibitions

Two exhibitions in Krefeld and Hagen honor Dutch artist Johan Thorn Prikker (1868–1932), who merged ornament with social utopia in early 20th-century art. The Kaiser Wilhelm Museum in Krefeld presents "Schöne Anarchie" (Beautiful Anarchy), showcasing his evolution from anarchist to applied artist under Henry van der Velde's influence. Thorn Prikker moved to Krefeld in 1904 at the invitation of museum director Friedrich Deneken, contributing to the 1904 exhibition "Linie und Form" with gouaches of stylized insects and fish. His monumental works—murals, mosaics, and stained glass—are highlighted, including three 1912 windows for the Catholic Gesellenhaus in Neuss that create a psychedelic effect. Later works like the mosaics "Der Tag" and "Die Nacht" (1926) at Düsseldorf's Ehrenhof show increasing abstraction. The exhibition also features a dialogue with contemporary artist Emma Talbot, whose large fabric works overlay Thorn Prikker's murals with a female-centric narrative. In Hagen, the Osthaus Museum displays his early stained glass window "Der Künstler als Lehrer von Handel und Gewerbe" (1911) and sketches for projects including a destroyed Rathaus window. The collector Karl Ernst Osthaus brought Thorn Prikker to Hohenhagen in 1910; his Villa Hohenhof retains the artist's ceiling and wall ornaments. The Nazis destroyed his large wall mosaic in the Kammermusiksaal in 1939, but a surviving version of "Lautenspielerin" is on view. The exhibitions run through 2026.